Our research project is designed to study the effects that the North Sea oil developments and associated social change will have on the remote Shetland Islands and its rural, isolated and homogeneous population. Our hypothesis is that the changes associated with the building of Europe's largest oil port and associated industrial facilities in Shetland will have a deleterious effect on the islanders' health and way of life which can be measured over time. To test this hypothesis we have initiated a prospective longitudinal study which contains two major sub-studies. The General Survey involves monitoring reported data on ecological, epidemiological and sociological change and is designed to give an overview of the general impact of the oil developments. The Individual Survey involves interviewing two populations in Shetland and is designed to examine individual's reactions to change and variables associated with those reactions. The target population (N equals 263) lives in an area where the oil port and developments will be built. The control population (N equals 270) lives in a region of the islands designated as a conservation area where no oil developments are allowed to be built, and thus will not be directly affected by them. We completed the baseline phase of our study in 1975-76 and during the current year we have been analyzing the data and writing about our results.